Logan Wolfram

Enjoying Life for Dessert

I Wear My Sungasses at Night…

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Ok, so not really.  But I do make fun of people who do.

I have to tell you a funny story of these sunglasses here on the left though.

I bought them on Friday night at this cool vintage store while on a date with The Hubs.  I feel cool wearing them…even when I haven’t brushed my hair or have make-up on (like in this picture that I can’t believe I’m posting on the internet.)  All to say, I like them…even if you think that they’re huge and make me look like a fly…I don’t care…I like them.

Anyhow it was SO hot on Friday night when we were walking around downtown and when we went into this store it was nice and air-conditioned.  I perused a bit and bought a shirt to send to my brother on the aircraft carrier.  When I went up to pay there was a big case with loads of awesome looking aviators, so I tried this pair on…and then the following conversation ensued between myself and the guy at the register.

Guy: “Here you go”

Me: “Thanks….Wow!  I’m so hot that the glasses are fogging!”

Guy:  “Yeah!  they do look really good….that’s an awesome way to think about it.”

Me (realizing what he thought I meant): “NO!!!  I mean literally my forehead is emitting so much heat that the glasses actually fogged!”

Let’s just say we both had a really hilarious laugh at that point.  He thought I was being arrogant…you and I just know that I have a serious case of verbal diarrhea.

Then he asked if I wanted the glasses in a bag or if I wanted to wear them and I said “I’m not one of those people who can wear my sunglasses at night.  Are you?”

Guy: “No.”

Me:”Seriously though, can anyone really pull of wearing sunglasses at night?  I think not.”

Guy:  “No….noone can.  It’s ridiculous.”

So…there you have it….unless you’re Corey Hart and wrote a song about it that people still love in secret and hate in public, you really shouldn’t do it either.  Some things just aren’t meant to actually be done. 

Cheaters….I am one.

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Sometimes I wonder if the title is the dirty little hook that makes more of you come over and read than you normally would?  If so, then I bet your human curiosity jumped you right here faster than normal.

I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t have a sordid tale of marital unfaithfulness wrought with awfulness and redemption to tell you.  About the worst side of cheating I’ve experienced personally was with a boyfriend in college who broke my heart into a million pieces when he told me he’d gotten some other girl pregnant and didn’t think it necessary to tell me about it until after the baby was a month old….on Father’s Day nonetheless.  I think all I did was cry to realize he’d cheated in the first place and then lied to me for an entire gestational period, but what I’ve always wished I’d said was “well, Happy Freaking Father’s Day to you!”

I didn’t say that though.

And I guess the other time I’ve felt cheating glare me in the face was walking with some friends through an affair that one of them had several years ago.  Next to losing babies, that was maybe one of the hardest things I’ve walked through in my life.  I do want to add that particular relationship has spent years on the road to beautiful restoration…but I know that the wreckage of cheating can span far and wide.  Our relationships with them, while still hugely precious to me, have never been the same…and that makes me sad.

But today…I am feeling like the big cheater.  And though it can’t touch breaking of vows or months of long lies, I’m still feeling really horrible.

I’m having my hair cut by another person today.

I know…I know.  You just read that sentence and are thinking (particularly if you are a man) “Are you freaking kidding me?!  She’s feeling guilty because she’s having someone new cut her hair today?  Give me a break?!”
It’s true though.  I literally woke up in the middle of the night feeling awful.  My friend who has cut my hair since COLLEGE didn’t even start out as a friend…she was just the new girl who was good with color and trying to build clientele.  And she got the most loyal of customers out of me til today.  
I’ve been with this girl since she was a crazy raver with pink streaks in her hair and 4 inch platform shoes to now…and over all these years, she’s morphed into the most unbelievable wife and mommy of 2 precious children.  I’ve gone from wide-eyed college grad to wife and mommy too…and she’s walked it all with me.  We went from a couple of hours with foils in my hair to hours on the phone talking about the deeper questions in life.  When she was between salons, there were several occasions where I bent my head into the tub at her apartment and rinsed out bleach and color and foils over a glass of wine and way more time than it really takes to get a cut and color.
And here I am today….cheating.
It’s not that I don’t love Ang.  It’s not that I think someone else will make my head more amazing than she can.  It’s that since she’s doing and being the thing she needs to be…awesome wife and mom…she only works now on Friday nights and Saturdays.  The truth is, that’s just not when I want to get my hair cut.  And sure I’m a little intrigued to see what a new person might think about how to make my head look super cool…because this new person has a sweet sense of style and an adorable little shop downtown that even Ang would have a fit over.  And I’m curious.  And the time frame is more convenient.  And I’m not committing to a full on switch…it’s just one cut.
But let’s just be honest.  If the cut has for years been as much about the relationship as the actual hairstyle, then why isn’t it now?  Why is getting a haircut on a Saturday suddenly inconvenient to me….when i know that once I’m in her chair I’ll be glad for every single second of face-time.  And I don’t know.  Maybe all the time and space that happens between us makes it harder to give up that precious time with my family all together?  Maybe I just like having Saturdays that are impromptu and unscheduled. Maybe it’s “just my hair” and since I colored it back to natural, it’s just not something that I want to spend lots of time messing with, so I go 6 months at a time between cuts, and more time and space happens because of it.
I don’t know what it is, but I do know this….the relationship still matters to me.  And as with all the relationships in my life that seem to get pushed father aside as children begin to have their own schedules, and their own friends to tend, and vacations push times at home farther apart, and life gets busy….I miss it.  I miss the relationship.   It gets harder to tend something that gets farther and farther apart doesn’t it?  And I wonder if I’m just too lazy to put in the time or if maybe I’ve just become a cheater?
I know it’s just a haircut….but is it really?  Or is it really a bigger question in life that we can all ask ourselves and be aware of in friendships, and relationships, and marriage….
How much distance can we tolerate before we cheat?  And what kind of face time are we willing to put in to protect the things and the people who are important to us?  
One thing I find myself thinking is that I’m really glad that God is more faithful than I am.  
Psalm 36: 5 – Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Happy July!

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I had great intentions to blog alot while at the beach this week.  To type up some posts to even have a backlog for when I skip a day writing here and there.  Obviously, you’ve probably noticed by now that those intentions paved the way to nowhere.
On Monday, my inbox had several feeds from adorable blogs who’d done due diligence and written to wish me a “Happy 4th of July.”  I kinda felt like a slacker since I didn’t do anything of the sort.  No fun 4th of July crafts to share, no recipe to sweeten your table in advance for the holiday, no eye candy of everything we’ve done over this vacation, and no top ten list for why America is great.  Nothing.  Sorry.

But here’s what I’ve realized about myself, and about my blog…I’m probably always going to try to spend my holidays actually “on holiday.”  I’ve always in some small part of myself wished that I was one of those people who could use nouns like verbs more often and do things like “summer,” and “winter” somewhere.  An extended vacation that really just gets to consume an entire season so that the seasonal noun becomes your verb of choice…but I’m not one of those people, so for now I’m going to take the small handful of days that the calender affords me and actually “holiday” on the holiday.

I busted my tail to blog when I was in Montana, and it was fun too, but this vacation has left me wanting to take a nap in the afternoons, or to sit on the beach an extra hour while my kids are napping.  To get unplugged and stay that way loner than normal.  I’m not really gonna drag my laptop onto the beach and give myself a square shaped tanline on my legs just to fire out a post.  I hope you’ll still read here though…and I hope that when I take a break, you won’t hold it against me and forget to stop by here anymore.

May be one day I’ll get myself in gear and blog way in advance and you’ll get a “Happy Thanksgiving” post on Thanksgiving…or a “Merry Christmas” post on Christmas.  My guess is though that most of you reading are doing the same thing that I am though which doesn’t involve being on the computer when you happen to get an extra fun day off to spend with your family.

I have just two more days of vacation and then it’s a 12 hour drive back home with my parents and 2 children…and if that’s not a springboard back into reality, then I don’t know what is?!

So…Happy June 31st, July 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th.

 – Logan

Don’t forget to send a sailor some love this month.  This month’s “Blogging from the Bush” serviceman to write and send carepackages to is Landon Lane on the aircraft carrier the George H. W. Bush.

His address is
AD3 Lane, Landon
VFA-15
Unit 60413
FPO AE 09504-6201

PS.  Standard mail and shipping rates apply…there’s no need for any extra postage than normal.

Blogging from the Bush: Letters from a Sailor

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I have a confession.  I haven’t posted the letter from my Navy Sailor brother yet because I’ve been hemming and hawing over if the total blunt truth straight from the mouth of a semi-salty sailor would put you all over the edge with me.

I’ve sent the letter to a couple of friends to gauge their reactions and we all agree it’s completely and harshly stereotypical of sailors, females on board, and human behaviors in general.  The letter contains a lot of truths, some hilarious exaggerations, some offensive generalizations, and a dose of real life on an aircraft carrier for months on end.  That being said….here it is.  If you hate it, don’t hate me.  If you love it, send my brother a carepackage.  If you think his letter is offensive but still appreciate the fact that he’s out there on a boat for months away from friends and family, send him a letter?  A nice one?! 🙂

A few things you should know:  My brother calls me Gogie, I call him Buds.  He is a great and decent guy with a fantastic sense of humor.  I love him to death and if you say anything mean about him, well…do it elsewhere.  This is my blog and I’ll not tolerate anyone hating on my family.  Remember my post the other day?! He wrote this letter June 14th…I’ve been sitting on it that long.  That being said…here you go. 


Hey Gogie,
Sorry it’s been a while, but with all the port visits recently it’s been difficult to sit down for more than a minute or two and write.
So we left Italy and are finally headed out to our area of responsibility, so no more port calls for a while I don’t think.  The entirety of deployment is looming pretty large right now.  We’ve not done very much and have so much left until we can return.  Some people count down the days, but that doesn’t help me a bit.  I like to just kind of zone out so that when I do think about it there’s more chance for a pleasant surprise of a week having gone by without noticing it…Or something along those lines. 
Having been a month out, a lot of guys are starting to get what we refer to as “boat goggles”.  Kind of like beer goggles, but longer lasting and infinitely more dangerous.  The females on board that aren’t worth a second glance are starting to look PRET-TY good.  
      “Whateva bro, I think that snaggletooth is kinda distinguishin’ like.”  
Yeah, that stuff is starting to pop up in conversations, and although it’s not very severe right now, well…5 months from now its gonna be really, really, REALLY bad.  
“Wow!  That chick is pretty hairy but she’s got a killer body!”  “Yeah, once you get past that and her hunchback she’s not bad.  And those festering sores around her mouth.  And her brutish Neanderthal brow. But yeah you should totally go for it!”
I’m not looking forward to that.  But once we do get back to the states the real women are all smoking hot.  It’s an unexpected silver lining.
A pretty interesting phenomenon I see in port is that even though we’re in some pretty awesome and exotic ports, I still see people going out and eating at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut or something along those lines.  I’m kinda embarrassed, actually.  There’s a lack of creativity I guess.
Fortunately tonight my shop doesn’t have much work to do.  We are waiting for another shop to test run a jet before we re-install the motor we removed so they could replace their equipment.  And then once we re-install the engine we have to run it up again to Op check that.  And there are a lot of little tasks to do, too, like corrosion prevention measures, documenting training, cleaning out toolboxes, and finding a working toilet, etc.  
Alright sis, I’ll write some more later,
Love you,
Buds
So, there you have it.  I’ll have him get a few others to send in some letters as well and keep up the original “Blogging from the Bush” plan of highlighting a different sailor every few weeks.  So for the next couple of weeks I’ll post my brother’s address on the bottom of each post so that you can send letters, carepackages, etc to him.  I sent him a package today with 2 loaves of vacuum sealed banana bread, a pkg of new boxers, a funny tshirt, some candy, some beef jerky, and a few other odds and ends.  Thanks for supporting our military…this coming holiday weekend wouldn’t be celebrated if it wasn’t for our military!  So show some love and send a sailor a package!

 Send a Sailor some love:

AD3 Lane, Landon
VFA-15
Unit 60143
                                                      FPO AE 09504-6201
Standard shipping rates apply (meaning, it costs the same to ship to them as any normal letter)

Keeping it Classy….

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You know I’ve mentioned before that I’m the Care Coordinator for my neighborhood, right?  Well, this past week one of my sweet neighbors had a death in the family, so it’s my job to make sure they have some meals, a card, flowers, etc.

This particular neighbor didn’t really want lots of meals throughout this week because there are just 2 of them, so I came up with the idea to have neighbors make frozen casseroles, lasagna, etc and drop them off to me to take over all at once today.   This way they’ll have meals for when they need them, but don’t have a barrage of people coming every day either.

The upside of this role for me has been seeing some neighbors who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting before.

Night before last, a neighbor I’d never met came by to drop off some food, and we got to have a really nice visit.  The Hubs had been out in the yard doing work and had just come in and showered off.  He threw on some wear-around-the-house kind of clothes and came downstairs just about the time I was meeting this neighbor.  Of course he said “hello” and introduced himself and then he went about his business while I chatted with my neighbor.

Later when he and I sat down to eat (after our kids were in bed and the neighbor was gone,)  I looked across the table and noticed he had thrown on a tshirt that he got for free at a work conference.  It was a security software tshirt, and emblazoned across the front was this….

WOW.  Nice to meet you Barbara.  Hope you like “fast and easy” too…or at least aren’t offended after meeting us now!

Keepin’ it classy ya’ll.  Keepin’ it classy.

One of Those Days…and a Recipe for Cobbler!

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Today has been one of those days with my kiddos….well, with one of my kiddos.  Which is why I haven’t posted til this evening.  I’m feeling pretty emotionally raggedy after the past couple of days with my 5 year old.

I must confess that I have no idea how I ever could have thought that a strong willed mother and father could end up with a passive child.  Clearly I didn’t.  I got a boy version of myself as a child in many ways.  Strong willed he is for sure.  Laugh now Mom…I know you want to.

I know we’re in another phase right now and that this too shall pass, but good night people…I’m starting each day here lately with what feels like less and less in my “patience tank,” as a friend of mine put it today.

Today, Tid Bit spent a large portion of the day in his room for whining, complaining, willful disobedience, and then the real icing on the cake was the complete meltdown while I was at the post office mailing my Navy Sailor brother a carepackage for his birthday (which was yesterday.)  Embarrassed I was not, frustrated to almost tears I was indeed.  Especially since the past several days, really some large portion of every day since returning home from our Montana vacation, have been similar in his behavior.

I lost it yesterday.  And it wasn’t over anything major either.  Just about the 700th time he disobeyed again and I screamed “Go to your room” in a voice (and at a decibel) that honestly freaked me out too.  It was one of those completely un-awesome moments in mothering that I apologized for about 45 minutes later when he’d calmed down and I had too.

But today, it was more of the same on his part.  I handled it all a bit better, but when my husband came home tonight, I fell apart and did what any tired mother wants to do at the end of a hard day when her bathtub only holds 4 inches of water….I made a peach and blackberry cobbler.  Tis the season for both fruits, and twas the day to enjoy them for sure!

And since my longtime friend, Laura Parker, is featuring one of my favorite summer recipes on her blog tomorrow (Wednesday,) I thought I’d finish my day well and share a great recipe with you (and since it’s been a little bit since I’ve posted a recipe.)

So here you go…easiest cobbler recipe ever.  I have another, perhaps even more amazing, peach and blackberry cobbler recipe that I’ll share with you later, but this basic cobbler recipe is perfect with pretty much anything.  I almost always have these few simple ingredients on hand as well.  My favorite version of this is to use tart plums to make it…delish!

Ingredients:
3/4 stick butter
3 c. fruit (for peaches, plums, etc…peel and slice)
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt the butter in a baking dish (I usually do it in about a 9×13 because I like lots of the crunchy top parts) in the oven.  While the butter is melting mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk.  Once the butter is melted in the dish evenly pour fruit into the dish.  Then pour the mixture evenly over the fruit and do not mix up or anything.  Bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes or til it’s nice and brown on the top.  Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.  I promise, it’ll make a bad day so much better.

See….
Day made much better… in a bowl. 
And as Scarlett O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day!”
Jesus said it too…but better for sure.  No shock there.  “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matt 6:34
Ain’t that the truth?!  And thank heavens for new days huh?!

Potty Talk…Bathroom Inspiration

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I don’t know about you all, but sometimes there are certain rooms in my house that completely elude me when it comes to how to decorate them.  Bathrooms are generally harder for me than other rooms..mostly because there are the same certain elements that you have to deal with and unless you’re overhauling and re-doing tile and cabinetry, you’re kinda working with what you’ve got.

I love wallpaper in a bathroom but it’s more money than I generally want to spend.  Painting designs is a great idea too, but typically I don’t want to spend that much time.  Thank heavens for fabric you can put on a window treatment and shower curtain, but still, you have to be careful that you don’t divide the room even more with a heavy looking shower curtain.  All to say…I think they get tricky.

My boys’ bathroom has been on my list of “make it so I like it” things for awhile now.  It’s painted a nice yellow (which, though yellow is a pretty color it is not my favorite) and has a super cute Curious George swinging on a vine that I painted on the wall.  I started painting a bird on a sign near the toilet about a year ago and never have finished it.  

I just can’t get into the whole cartoon character themed room thing.  I’ve never done it…I’m just not a fan.  Tid Bit said he wanted that… and ONLY because Curious George is old and super cute did I agree.  No offense intended if your kid’s room is all tricked out with Dora or Diego or Backyardigans or something…it’s just not my thing.  Even George was a serious stretch for me….which is pretty much why the room has never been finished.

As of late, I’ve been really thinking about what I could do to make the room feel more “us.”  I’ve thought about some stylized camo, military looking something or another, but haven’t settled there because if we ever have a girl that’s just not the direction that I’d want to go.  Finally the idea hit me when I saw a really cool print at a gift shop when we were in Glacier National Park in Montana.

Vintage-style National Park Signage

Above here is the first print and some super cool stickers that I found.  See where I’m going with this?  Then I found a copy of the road sign for the Going-to-the-Sun Road, that sadly we couldn’t go all the way over during the trip since they were still clearing feet upon feet of snow from it through the higher elevations.
Throughout the rest of the trip I found a few other great prints and some vintage looking postcards as well, and now I’m super excited.  There are these awesome red car-style buses that tour visitors around and we saw them all over.  They are sort of iconic…called the Red Jammers, and I just adore them.  I think that’ll be a fun way to get some bursts of color into the room.  I’m thinking the walls may go sort of taupe and I’m considering painting the base cabinets a nice bluish gray color. I’ll load the walls with all of my great finds as well as some family photographs from this trip. 
So, here is sort of a grouping of everything that I’ve picked up so far.  I think the ultimate goal would be to begin collecting this style of art from other family trips and see the bathroom evolve over time into a nod to fun family adventures.

I don’t know exactly if and how I’ll use each thing in the room til I get a chance to mess around with it all, but for now, I’m super inspired and very excited to get going on it! Stay tuned for this project to come!  You know how I get excited about a new idea and can’t wait to get started.  At least this time I have “Before” pictures!

– Logan


And The Gloves Came Off…..

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Oh ya’ll, today I had a moment.

I bet you were wondering how long it’d be before the crazy person in me decided to jump out and surprise us all again.  Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to wait too too long?  Yeah…sorry to say I guess I’m a little predictable like that.  But the crazy person made an appearance today for sure.  This time instead of a mother bear though, it was more like this….

A Mean Old Lady
What I really want to say is “mean old bitty,” but I won’t say that…at least not in enlarged font.
So here’s the scenario.  I’m standing in my living room talking to 2 friends…one who was hanging out and the other who stopped by to drop off a gift for a lingerie shower I’m throwing this weekend.  We are all three standing there talking, and out of the corner of my eye I see a golf cart with freaking monster truck tires driving like a bat out of hell around the corner.  The thing almost flips over as they round the corner, they do like 3 donuts in the culdesac, pull forward and then back up into my yard (over the curb mind you) and begin taunting my dogs.
I had visions of a 15 year old boy flipping (yes flipping) his car into my back neighbor’s front yard and taking out their mailbox about 2 years ago.  Every time I have that vision…that memory…I also think about what if that mailbox had been my kid innocently playing in the front yard.  And I get fired up.
The 3 dog-taunters driving this donut-doing, souped up golf cart today happened to be probably 13 year old boys.  They didn’t have a care in the world, weren’t paying a lick of attention to anything around…probably because they had their heads so far up their….well, you get the picture.  They were being reckless.  And on our culdesac we have 5 young kids who often play in our front yards.
About the time I saw them backing over the curb into my yard and taunting my dogs, I thought it was time to, you know…take the gloves off and have a nice little chat.
I marched outside and started motioning them to stop the cart and get it out of my yard.  The boy driving was still not paying ANY attention until one of his buddies practically smacked him in the back of the head to turn around.  The kid looked at me and started to speed away and I walked right up to the side of the golf car and said “You stop this cart right now.”  And then the following conversation ensued:
Me: “You boys need to be careful out here.  There are 5 small children who live on this street and there is absolutely no reason for you to be joyriding like fools on it.  I don’t appreciate you driving your cart into my yard and I don’t appreciate you bothering my dogs.  Now… You driving, what is your name?!”
Boy: *whispering* “Matt”
Me: “Matt?  Matt what?”
Boy: “Matt buzzulubumblezzzmmmzzmmm” (that’s me doing my best to show you a mumble)
Me: “I’m sorry Matt, what is your full name”
Boy:  “Matt buzzulubumblezzzmmmzzmmm”
Me:  “Matt, I cannot understand what your name is when you say ‘Matt buzzulubumblezzzmmmzzmmm,’ so how about if you speak clearly and tell me your last name.”
Boy:  “Matt Simpkins. (and then he tried to get all tough on me) Why do you want to know?!”
Me:  “So Matt, that I can know who’s mother I’m calling today.  Now you boys go home and I do not expect to see you driving like this down my street again.”
The end.
If I ever wondered if I have reached full maturity as an adult up til now, I’d say with that little motherly tirade today, all questions have been fully answered.  Indeed, I am a grown up.  A mean old mommy who ruins other people’s fun.  And I don’t feel one bit sorry about it either. 
I may like to think that I’m cool and hip and young, but truth is, I’m just another old lady ready to smoke anybody who messes with my family….
 Bring it!




*I changed the kid’s name here just to be nice.

Food for Thought: Escha-what?!

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Ok. So I wrote the post about the weather last night, but am making an addition now here with some interesting things I came across today.

Eschatology…is basically the study of end times, and this morning when I was having some time with the Lord I most interestingly (but probably not coincidentally) ended up reading about eschatology.  I started out with some reading in Psalms because our church is reading through the Bible this year.  Somehow a cross reference ended me up in Matthew, and then my eye jumped from the cross reference to some verses that I had underlined on the opposite page.  So I ended up in Matthew 21:18-22 which talks about Jesus cursing the fig tree and willing it to wither and die.  Then subsequently he tells the disciples that if they have faith and do not doubt, then they can do like he did to the fig tree, they can command mountains to fall into the sea and it will happen.  That the things that we ask in prayer and believing, we will receive.

I have a thing about figs.  I’ve posted recipes with them before and will do more when fig season is upon us later this summer.  And I started thinking about how often I’ve noticed that figs turn up in scripture, and I got to wondering.  “What is the deal with figs?”

So i googled “fig tree” and also searched it on BibleGateway (which by the way is a really great, FREE resource for different Bible translations, does searches…it’s awesome.)  I found 49 instances where figs were referenced in the Bible.  Many of those references point to figs being a symbol of prosperity in Biblical times.  And then i looked up figs on Wikipedia as well to learn more about them.  That ended me up reading about the Parable of the Barren Fig tree that I just told you about, and from that reading about Figs in the Bible.  Figs are mentioned in what is called The Olivet Discourse which is a biblical passage found in the Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21. Apparently it is sometimes referred to as the “Little Apocalypse” because it includes Jesus’ descriptions of the end times.  So you see how this happened?  Psalms to figs to end times?
 
I know…it’s a serious Biblical ADD…or maybe just what I was supposed to be reading today after posting about the weather and end times last night.  So then I started reading all around about end times and eschatology and tribulation and views on it all, and I determined something….

I will not determine or know what time is the “end time.”
And from what I can tell that the Bible says, noone but God will know.  But boy are there a lot of camps about when and how people think it will happen.  I mean, wasn’t Jesus supposedly predicted by some people to come back about a month ago?  I’m pretty sure that didn’t go like the predictors thought it would.  
I wonder who avoided going to the bathroom all day for fear they’d be raptured while on the can?  Or who didn’t drive that day lest their vehicle be abandoned while zooming down the interstate? But seriously…I guess the question keeps being asked and keeps being answered because we, humans, like to be in control.  We like to know things.  We like to have a handle on how to plan, and what will happen when we’re ready for it, so that we can get ready.  And what I determined today (and you may most certainly disagree with me,) is that in the realm of eschatology and deciding when and where and how you think that end times will happen, it probably doesn’t really matter….because sometime, there will be an end, and I, in my humanity, am not in a position to know just when that will be.
So for here and now, I think I’ll do the best that I can to serve well the God who gave me a second chance at a full life through Jesus Christ…and who also gave us all… figs.
PS. If my delving into big words like “eschatology” or topics like “end times” freaks you out, I am sorry…it’s just what I’ve been thinking about lately.  I’ve also been thinking about redecorating my boys’ bathroom with some fun art I found in Montana, so if that’s more your speed and interest, stick around…I’ll tell you more about that stuff in the next couple of days too!

Apocalypse Now?…

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I don’t know about the rest of you and what the weather is like where you live, but it’s been crazy around South Carolina the past couple of months.  And from what I can tell on the news, across the rest of the country it’s been pretty crazy too.  There have been record numbers of tornadoes, floods, winds, and storms pretty much everywhere.  I have lived the majority of my life in the Carolinas and until about a month ago, in the Carolinas I have never seen THIS.

I was out riding bikes with my family for about 20 minutes last night and stopped to talk to a neighbor.  In about 5 minutes, the sky got dark and the wind started howling, and we got the heck out of dodge if you know what I mean.  Ride like the wind I tell you…and the wind was blowing seriously fast.

I saw this picture last night that a friend linked on facebook of the storm here in town.  It was taken about 10 minutes from where I live.

Ummm…. now listen, I don’t know a thing about tornadoes except what I’ve seen on Extreme Weather on the Weather Channel or on the movie “Terrible Tuesday” that I watched several times in school growing up, but isn’t that sort of how tornadoes start?  And whether it is or not, I’d just like to say that I live in South Carolina because we don’t have storms like people do out in places like Kansas and Oklahoma….and I like that about South Carolina.  But perhaps we do have storms sort of like that…actually, apparently we do.

Last week when I was in Montana there were storms in town with over 80 mph straight-line winds.  I’d never even heard of straight-line winds until a friend told me that they took out 17 trees in her yard and completely rearranged the furniture at her neighborhood pool.  Look what they did to my yard too.  I guess I’m lucky to just have one tree casualty….still, look where this thing fell. 

(Yes that is directly between the 2 play sets in my yard.  Um…. I’m a little uncomfortable with that.  And the fact that it was entirely uprooted.)

And then last night I also heard of a roof blowing directly off of a building into the middle of a major road.  This does not happen here.  Oh yeah, and when we were coming back from our trip the other night, there was a billboard at our exit that was bent into a 90 degree angle.  Just wrapped around the pole, like it was a piece of cardboard that someone flicked too hard.

All to say, it’s weird.  And did you know that apparently one of Saturn’s moons lost a ring recently too?  Yeah…random tidbit I learned from a friend who knows tidbits like that.  And I can’t help but really wonder to myself…how do you know when it really is the “end times?”  I mean, the Bible says we won’t know the exact date and time of Jesus’ return, but it does say that things can get weirder beforehand.  I don’t claim to know at all ya’ll, but I do wonder.  And in the end, what I do know is that however weird and weathery it gets here, when He comes back…I for one am going with Him.

PS. For fear that you all begin think I’m some freaky end times theologian or something…I just want to say “stop right there.  I’m not.”  Surely though, I’m not the only person wondering what in the world is going on with the world? And with the weather?